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Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Interesting news on the new audit report

So, basically, what they're saying here is, we have too many administrators. Over 300 too many in fact. In the central office of course. Apparently we have almost 1,500 staff in the central office, when we really should only have 1,162.

In addition, "Job titles, and their lack of descriptiveness, are a problem. The district employs directors, coordinators, secretaries and others in the central office whose titles don't reflect their responsibilities."

They also found "confusion about who does what and how much they should be paid. Some secretaries, for instance, have more responsibility than the presumably higher title of coordinator."

Well well wellMy my myI could use a massage right about now myself to relieve some of this tension of oppression,rejection and being ripped off by the very people who are hired to serve.Dr. A, everyone is watching and waiting. This is nothing new Mr..."I think what this has really found is massive redundancy," said school board member Don McChesney, who attended Atkinson's presentation Thursday. "We've got secretaries making more than our teachers. That might be justified, but somebody's got to show me how it's justified. Some please take him out to the wood pile and justify his...This has to be one of those "COME ON MAN" moments.

The salary schedule must be revisited. I have serious concerns when an employee write his/her on job description. There are so many over paid Sect. who wear the label of Admin. Asst. yet they didn't even graduate from college. Some of these folk are making $80-$90 thousand dollars. With all of the technology we have today, why do we need all of these Adm. Asst. (sect). I hate to see people loose jobs in this economy, so I hope she sends all retired administrators including retired Executive Directors walking. After all they are drawing fat retirement checks. Surely hopes she can save enough money to rid us of furlough days for students and school house folk.

The DeKalb County School System overpays more than 2,500 nonteaching employees to the tune of $14.8 million, but officials said the district may not be able to address the issue in time to affect next school year's budget.

Ernst & Young consultant Jim Landry told school board members Thursday that some positions are "overvalued" and carry "inflated titles." He did not cite specific examples and took care to say the firm's findings are not intended to criticize the individuals in those jobs.

Landry emphasized that the figures are not final, but characterized the analysis as an "alarming" starting point.

The firm is conducting a comprehensive salary study and presented its analysis on the heels of a two-hour budget work session that focused on next year's pay raises.

About 35 percent of 7,355 full-time employees who are not in the classrooms appear to be paid above the maximum recommended pay range for their jobs. Only 233 employees are paid below appropriate pay ranges, which would cost about $325,000 to fix, he said.

Board Vice Chairwoman Bebe Joyner said the nearly $15 million figure is "kind of a shocker." "We've been accused of having way too many people in central office and paying way too much for a long time,and it validates that," Joyner said. However, equalizing pay will be a slow process, she said.

The 98,000-student district also employs about 7,000 teachers. Landry said DeKalb's teacher pay scale is lower than some other metro Atlanta systems, but higher than the national market. It is not likely to need much adjustment, he said.

When a new structure is adopted, the district's 1,680 job titles will be cut in half, said Reanee Ivey, DeKalb's assistant director for affirmative development. Ernst & Young has been comparing job descriptions and actual duties based on questionnaires completed by thousands of employees.

"There have been elevations of people into jobs that really the overall market [indicates] what you should be paying is considerably less" than they are currently earning.

Employees will be able to appeal their new job classifications.

Board member Chip Franzoni, who chairs the budget committee, asked whether there would berecommendations the board could adopt before it sets next year's property tax rate in January..............The administration is proposing an early retirement incentive for up to 178 longtime employees in district-level jobs that would not have to be filled. About 140 have expressed interest, which could save the district $1 million to $3 million.

Does this mean that qualified applicants were denied the opportunity to apply and or denied interviews for these made-up jobs that has suspect job descriptions?Let us see the qualifications/job descriptions for each job because I am sure as the frost on the ground that some job discrimination has taken place. Some hard working, deserving qualified people have been oppressed.

Consider this: If the cost to the County of each of the 300 excess employees is "only" $50,000 per year, it amounts to $15,000,000 of waste every year. The next time anyone from the County office tells you that DCSS doesn't have the money for an improvement or teacher or paraprofessional, remind that person that DCSS has the money, but spent it on unnecessary staff.

$341,000 several years back for a salary audit that found they were overpaying employees by millions of dollars a year.

Now, school officials can’t seem to locate those findings.

It’s a common belief – though by no means necessarily true — that DeKalb schools’ payroll is flabby with high-paid jobs that have little or nothing to do with teaching kids.

News and blog reports discuss those workers in the context of a jobs program – cynically termed “the Friends and Family Plan” — that supposedly favors those with connections to school board members and top administrators.

So, for a year or more, school watchdogs have fussed over getting a copy of the salary audit. In 2004, the AJC reported consultants Ernst & Young had determined DeKalb was paying non-classroom workers $14.8 million more than they should each year.

At the time, former Superintendent Crawford Lewis said that report had exaggerated the overpayments, which were really $1.8 million. Today, school officials question whether a 7-year-old salary study could still be relevant.

Regardless of who’s right, some parents say Ernst & Young’s work might help to identify savings as DeKalb prepares to close a dozen or more schools and trim its payroll yet again.

Sandy Spruill, a parent who’s volunteered at DeKalb schools for 20-plus years, thought so too.

“I believe that we have enough money in the DeKalb County school system to do what needs to be done for our students,” Spruill told me last week. “The problem is we are way bloated in the central office and to make matters worse we are overpaying them.”

School officials had told other parents that the salary audit couldn’t be located. When Spruill filed a formal request last month under the Georgia Open Records Act, officials told her they had tracked it down and she could get a copy – if she paid retrieval and copying fees of $255.95.

Spruill balked. “I don’t think I should have to pay anything to take a study off a shelf,” she said.

Officials countered that it took time to compile the information from different locations and only a few people knew how to do that.

“It’s not like something you pull off a shelf,” schools spokesman Walter Woods said.

Many citizens facing similar obstacles just give up. Spruill pushed back, researched the open records law, and school officials eventually agreed she could look at the report, without getting a paper copy, for free.

As it turned out, Spruill is doubly lucky she didn’t have to pay, because DeKalb didn’t actually find the audit she requested.

Officials produced a “Compensation and Classification Program Documentation Manual,” evidently developed in 2005 as an offshoot of the audit, and summaries written by DeKalb school personnel of some of Ernst & Young’s work.

Those documents do not begin to address Spruill’s key questions: Who was being overpaid, by how much, and what did school officials do about it?

The 2005 manual said overcompensated workers would have their compensation frozen unless and until their pay grade was adjusted to catch up their actual pay. Did that happen? Without the audit that identified those positions, there’s no way for the public to tell.

Parents have searched for the audit on the district’s website, which posts school board agendas and backup material for meetings dating back to 2002. No luck there, either.

To their credit, school officials acknowledge that the public’s had a harder time getting public documents than it should.

Woods, a former AJC colleague of mine, said interim Superintendent Ramona Tyson has instructed him to streamline the process and make sure DeKalb is “totally compliant” with the Open Records Act.

Paper has been around more than 2,000 years, the folks at Georgia Tech’s Robert C. Williams Paper Museum tell me. Word-processing software started to take off about four decades ago.

Each invention represented a huge advance in our ability to record information for posterity. Either technology is also acceptable for complying with Georgia’s Open Meetings Act, which requires that government agencies keep records of official meetings.

DeKalb County schools are in the education business, but they haven’t learned to adhere to that basic principle.

We told you a few weeks ago that a 2005 audit reportedly found up to $14.8 million in bloated salaries for non-classroom personnel in DeKalb. When a citizen asked for that audit, which cost taxpayers $341,000, officials produced a job reclassification proposal but nothing that would identify a single employee who was being overpaid.

Why does this matter today? Because, with the school district continuing to face major budget deficits, parents and other school watchers want to know whether more fat can be trimmed outside the classroom.

I followed up, asking for the minutes of three meetings in 2004 and 2005 where the audit was discussed. School officials found minutes of one meeting, and rudimentary notes — no one seemed to know who made them – for another.

There was no trace of minutes for a third, two-hour briefing on the audit on April 1, 2004, even though records seem to show the school board approved those minutes a month later. That session, unaccountably, is also missing entirely from the board’s online archive of nine years of board meetings.

The “complete executive summary” of the compensation study was also to be included in the official file of a fourth board meeting in September 2005, minutes show. But it’s not there now, schools spokesman Walter Woods said.

Why is all this stuff missing? “Record-keeping, human error, I think there is a number of factors,” Woods said.

Lynn Cherry Grant, who stepped down in 2008 after serving 16 years on the DeKalb board, had a different take when I called her about it.

“I have no explanation for that except for very bad management of official documents,” she said. “There’s no excuse for board meeting minutes to be missing.”

Georgia law, in fact, requires that minutes of school board meetings must be kept –permanently. Failing to do so is a misdemeanor. Destroying public documents – not that I’m saying that happened – can be prosecuted as a felony.

The notes on a January 2005 meeting appear to show about $12 million of the estimated overpayments were for school-based personnel, including social workers, psychologists, principals and assistant principals. Another $1 million or so, then-Superintendent Crawford Lewis told the board, were for food-service managers and workers.

Two months later, the consultant from Ernst & Young told board members that the $14.8 million figure was incorrect and had “dropped significantly,” minutes show.

Ernst & Young delivered a report later that year calling for new job titles and pay scales across the board.

Those specific recommendations were never put into effect, officials now say, but they’re not entirely sure why. They suggested the school board chose not to proceed but could not produce evidence of such a decision.

Grant said it’s quite possible the matter slipped through the cracks. “Those days were a very turbulent time,” Grant said.

Grant also recalls that some other board members were upset about some of the consultant’s findings.

“Everybody had a sacred cow,” she said. “If you had a relative or best friend or somebody you went to church with … then you were not very happy to hear they were being overpaid by $5,000.”

Grant said she could only speculate today how those matters might have been resolved. But of one thing she is certain.

“Never dismiss the power of politics. I learned that on the board of education.”

"How about this? We could end up replacing 300 overpaid central office staff with 500-600 teachers!"

Amen!

And we need to start paying the teachers we have competitively!We are currently in last place for teacher salaries in the metro area- averaging about 5-10% less than Fulton, Cobb, Gwinnett, Clayton and Atlanta.

For a list of the names listed in 2004 as being overpaid (beyond the TOP of their pay scale range) -- read this post we wrote up after looking through 7 carton-sized boxes of papers finally given to Sandy on the subject.

Why not get a copy of this Ernst&Young report from Ernst & Young? They should have a copy! Sounds like a conspiracy. How can a company do this amount of work and then the finished product is awol? PLEASE. Stupid just left the room.

Dr. Atkinson has shown herself to be a liar on several occasions during the cell tower debates. She has shown that she will side with whoever is getting the most on the side. I do not have any hope that any of the frineds and family will be fired. They hope three or four years from now everybody will be content with wondering where this audit disappeared to.

Almost all school-based secretaries (hundreds) were below the recommended step by $5,000-$7,000Over 50 non-school-based secretaries were over the maximum salary by $4,460Approx 30 non-school-based more secretaries were over the maximum by over $3,000Over 30 maintenance assistants were below the recommended step from $1,542-$5,010Over 100 campus security officers were over the maximum by $2,006-$17,100 (Avg: over $8,000)9 language interpreters were underpaid from $3,207-$5,66712 interpreters for the deaf were over the maximum by $3,783-$16,563Over 75 Tech Support Specialists were over the maximum by $1,671-$5,28310 bookkeepers were underpaid from $1,151-$5,012Over 100 bus drivers were paid below the minimum from $814-$2,319Almost all food service managers (over 100) were over the maximum from $5,606-$18,661Over 50 custodians were below the minimum from $758-$6,759Several registrars were below the minimumOver 30 maintenance assistants were below the minimum from $788-$5,0135 Accounts Payable Clerks were over the maximum from $1,422-$6,890Approx half of parapros were paid $4,000 more than the other half

". She (Ramona Tyson)'is being paid $170,000 per year, and we get no return on investment from her."

No. ms Tyson is being paid $240,000 plus $24,000 for expenses (my guess is that expenses of $2,000 a month is tax free) to be the Assistant to the Superintndent for 18 months. I guess they'll be hiring another high priced person for her old as head of business operations in charge of Finance and Human Resources.

Now the big question is....what are we going to do with this new information.It has always been amazing to me how the pay pyramid works in education. A cafe manager can make almost 40k or more when the cafe assistant manager is the employee that is doing the day to day operations and paperwork. A great example of too many bosses. The education system also needs to get rid of this 1950s belief that a para is worth (at least in pay) 1/2 of a teacher. This is so demeaning....when again its the paras who work in small groups and one on one with the students. A bookkeeper aka secretaryII in some cases should not make more than a para. Pay the employees that directly impact the students and their achievements. Every school does not need 2 secretaries....bookkeepers can job share meaning they can actualy do payroll for 2 schools if they are truly doing their job. And these parent center paras being paid double and more what a normal para makes is just sad. With all these overpaid titles....get rid of them and make way to give employees raises, a simple cost of living raise, and restore steps, most employees make LESS than today than they did 5 years ago! Sad but true.

Here's some real wisdom, believe it or not, from a Superintendent--Dr. Lembeck of Marietta City Schools. From Get Schooled:

““It becomes more difficult to protect what happens in the classroom without looking at some services that are not directly related,” Lembeck said. “Reducing days of instruction through furloughs and larger class sizes is not in the best interest of our core business of educating students.”

Think we'll ever hear this from a Dekalb Super? Maybe if Walker is truly intent on holding Dr. Atkinson accountable for student achievement?

BUT...it'll be a cold day in Borneo when Walker forsakes friends, family, money, power, and the proud reputation of a bully to actually put big money back in the schoolhouse.

My roommate loves teaching at the DCSS title 1 school where she works! She loves her students, in spite of an oppressive principal. Now, in her 5th year of teaching, her salary is less than it was when she started teaching 5 years ago, right out of college. I'm in a business where my salary has increased and I'm treated with respect. Obviously, she's seeking to leave education, as the future for teachers (and students) in DeKalb is bleak. It's just ashame!

Audit confirms what we already know. "Massage" may not be the best choice of words considering that stakeholders want action now. Contracts for 2012-2013 are due to come out in March. We should see a shift of monies to the school-house, no furlough days for school-based employees, board contributing to retirement or social security, step increases for school based employees, class size reduction, and a huge reduction of staff at AIC to cover increase monies for school based staff members.

If Dr. A. massages this audit like Tyson massaged the redistricting consultant's report, then we will have wasted another several hundred thousand dollars on a consultant fee. AUGH.

I can't tell whether her trying to temper the report was to prepare us, the general public, for the fact that she is not going to follow it or whether she was trying to gently prepare the central office for big changes.

Streat’s lawyers file another motion on AGLawyers for Sen. Van Streat are seeking “detailed affidavits” from Attorney General Thurbert Baker and two others they accuse of conspiring to destroy official records.http://www.accessnorthga.com/detail.php?n=193825

Suit accuses parole board member of sexual harassmentA former secretary claims in a lawsuit that Pardons and Paroles Board member Gene Walker sexually harassed her and eventually had her moved to another job.http://www.accessnorthga.com/detail.php?n=197712

@Anon 12:23 AM. I have not seen any evidence that paints Dr. Atkinson as a liar. When it comes to the cell tower issue, this was something done by the board before they hired her. (Remember that I made a fuss over the fact that they were debating cell towers when they should be entirely focused on the superintendent search?)

We have Paul Womack to thank for pushing the cell tower issue. Paul Womack is the board member who told anyone who asked that it was a "done deal" - "contract signed"... not Dr. Atkinson.

Dr. Atkinson reports to the board and only the board. She is their only employee. Can you imagine having nine bosses? Worse - those nine?

When they said they took a public vote and voted to do this deal (Jester and Edler voting "No") - then Atkinson, when hired as superintendent HAD to sign their contract. No way could she argue this.

The cell tower issue is on Paul Womack and the rest of the board members who supported him, which again, do not include Edler and Jester.

As with redistricting demands of the BOE where the BOE voted to amend Tyson's recommendation, they did the same with the SPLOST IV list. Tyson refused to put some of the BOE's pet projects on and she made them publicly amend her recommendation because she didn't support their desires as being what was best for the children. This BOE can and will do the same to Dr. A. when it comes to budget/staffing. Hope I am wrong but....history has a way of repeating itself.

I'm afraid you may be right. Walker now holds the trump card. He can work to protect jobs - behind the scenes - while publicly pretending to hold Atkinson to student performance. However, he will tie her hands (with the full support of a majority of the board). Atkinson is the one who can get fired over low achievement. Board members have no worries as they are (mostly) elected to ensure jobs - which they do with a vengeance. As long as we continue to provide good jobs and have "some" good schools that the vocal parents can send their children to freely, all is well.

Regarding Ernst & Young, not being able to cough up a copy of the 2004 report. If I was a company looking for a consultant to use, I certainly would NOT use Ernst & Young. A huge consultant loses documents just a couple of years after the report is written? Come on, this screams of a cover-up of some sort.

In 2004, electronic data like word documents, power points, adobe pdf's were the rule. So you're telling me a vendor destroys their work after giving it to the client? Never in my life have I heard this. That audit was paid for by public money, $314,000. E & Y, this might not be a great marketing tool for you, I have new slogan, No worries! At Ernst and Young we destroy all documents days after the report is sent to you! How many other PUBLIC TAXPAYER FUNDED audits have Ernst & Young lost, conveniently?

I am happy the truth is finally trickling out. Those "vociferous" parents along with Sandy Spruill, that tried to expose this stuff 6 years ago, are finally seeing the fruits of their labor.

Has anyone heard from our NEW BOE Chair? McChesney is right, I would love to hear the justification why an Admin. Asst. is getting paid more than a teacher.

Can any of this stuff be used in the criminal case against Clew or Pope? What about the NEW current Grand Jury investigation? Could a subpoena force Ernst & Young to produce a copy of the 2004 audit? I've been asking for 6 years, what was Clew and Company trying to hide from the public eye? The fact they have been successful, up to now, really concerns me.

Don't lose perspective on the true cost to taxpayers since salaries are only a portion of the total cost.

The current salary and benefit structure for county employees, including teachers, needs to be drastically reformed. I'm arguing for a salary structure with health and retirement plans that are actually sustainable.

The information that was presented to the board and Dr.A was they are 300 adminstrators over what is needed to run the county....the administrators are included in the central office head count I believe....

Just ask each and every last one of them for their position on this almost $400,000.00 Ernst$$Young request. If they do nothing, then you know they have to go. The power of the vote is the voice of the people. We have been stoned-walled and why keep having this conversation. The truth will set all this free. Get a grass-root REVOLT on every member that wants to hide and continue to hide behind the I DON't KNOW. We paid for a product that has never been produced to the tax-paying citizens of GEORGIA. Why haven't the BOARD stepped up for the children of DEKALB COUNTY and demanded a finished product and or legal actions. This is not a waste to sue for something that you have paid for but never received. Put them to the test. No results. Recall - Vote that butt out. Stop playing word games and name calling. Ask the Board to sue Ernst (cash money) Young for the documents. Mr. M, Dist. 2, Can you justify this? Dr. A., can you MASSAGE UP us a 400,000.00 $ document? MR. Walker, Chair- Since you are the man on top, ask? Mr. Bowden, Mr. Dist. 5, Ms. Dist. 1,3,7,8 and Mr Dist.5 - Can we hear from you. Individual Transparent Accountability = TRUST.Why keep trusting the same people and expect a different result... This is INSANITY. It is time to FREE, SET FREE, the children of DEKALB COUNTY. SHAMEFUL...LET MY PEOPLE GO IN THE NAME OF HUMANITY..REGARDLESS OF RACE, CREED, GENDER..ETC,ETC..IT IS TIME TO CALL A SPADE A SPADE BECAUSE IT IS WHAT IT IS - JUST DOWN RIGHT OUT ___________________.

An average salary of $72,000 per exhibit designer (without benefits included).

Do you know that a physics or chemistry or biology teacher in DeKalb with a PhD and ten years of teaching experience is paid $58,514? We pay a physics, chemistry or biology teacher in Dekalb with a Masters degree and ten years of teaching experience $53,510.

With benefits (20%), DeKalb is paying $431,782 for these 5 exhibit designers (average of $86,357 each).

The museum part of Fernbank Science Center is only one room, and the exhibits are pretty much the same ones they have had for years. I doubt the very large and many times more exhibits Fernbank Museum has 5 exhibit designers.

Am I the only one who understands that we forgo 7 science teachers with Masters or PhDs and at least 10 years of instructing students in the classroom for these 5 designers? How must teachers with PhDs in physics and chemistry or biology and 10 or 20 years of experience feel when they see these salaries?

Fernbank Science Center only has an entrance way, one hallway and one large room with exhibits that are decades old. How is it possible that we are employing so many "exhibit designers" at such high salaries? I would like to see the basis of comparison since no other system in Georgia to my knowledge even has exhibit designers.

@ 1:26 PM The E & Y report will never see the light of day. The members of the BOE seem to have a code of not doing anything to embarrass present or past BOE members or that would show who hired the friends and family members. If one of them pushes to have the E & Y report released, then he/she would be afraid of some type of retaliation now or in the future. So why risk it.

For a client (DCSS) to have a lawyer or accountant release a document requires only a letter from the titular head of the client. Ms A would only have to send a one paragraph letter to E & Y to have the 2004 report released. But why should she do it? She was never a part of that deal. The present BOE will not push her to release it for the reasons given above. Releasing it on her own only would incur the wrath of some present BOE members and others in the County who still have some weight that could adversely affect her.

A large number of the admin in the central office can retire. Robert tucker should have been gone a long time ago. Ramsey already has a job. The admin who are educators need to be sent back into the class rooms and lower the number of children in classes.

Well, Well, Well. I bet half of the bloat is made up of the Family and Friends.AKA's sisterhood sorors, frat brotherhood, church folks from New Birth, and the calloways.(Dad is a principal, Mom is a principal, Brother is an assistant principal, sister, preventive specialist with no degree in the field, para certificate expired, and the younger brother, just holding down a class , will not come to work or teach the children and no one at his school will touch him!

Shame on you Dekalb. Some one has to stand up for JUSTICE. We just celebrated Dr. King holiday and birthday. You paraded through Historic Stone Mountain GA. Where is your pride? Shame on you Dekalb.How can you call yourself leaders, concerned educators....In the words of Dr. King - Some of us just may have to "get scuffed up" to break this chain. Some one has to make the sacrafice to right this ship. A drum major for justice.PEACE

I hate to say this, but I don't think there is a 'report' per se. We were given 7 boxes of research documents and tallied the overpayments from some printed Excel spreadsheets in the boxes. E&Y gave a 'preliminary' presentation on their findings, which obviously sent the board (mostly different people at the time) into a tizzy. The 'final' report was stopped and E&Y never completed the project - or so we're told (although they billed and were paid for the entire contract).

Yes, it's very fishy. When Tyson asked her staff for the documents, they first gave her a small packet, then when pushed, they gave her a binder, then when pushed further, the 7 boxes. Could there be more? Who knows - but 'someone' is very very interested in protecting jobs.

That said, yes, I think there could be issues here for Dr. Lewis. If it was found that he was placing 'friends and family' in made up jobs with high paychecks when the actual duties were altogether different (or in the case of one employee who was protected even though he never showed up for work for 6 months!) then, it could look like he was more or less "giving away" state and federal funds.... something like fraud?

@Anon 7:07----There's another Callaway? Teaching?Won't come to work?Must be waiting to become an administrator.What a remarkable family. They are all outstanding educators. Please don't make him waste too much valuable time in the classroom while he could be a leader!

By spring of 2005, E&Y had largely completed its proposed redesign of the district’s classification system and was apparently still working on the other phase of the project. In other words, E&Y was still trying to determine how the district’s compensation levels compared to those in surrounding districts. But rather than completing that second phase of the project, it appears that the district and E&Y negotiated a reduced scope of work. Although several emails around this time period referred to there being a reduced scope of work, we do not have any documents showing exactly what changes were made. What we do know is that E&Y proceeded to finalize its proposed design of the employee classification system and it provided its final deliverables in August or September of 2005. Those deliverables included a documentation manual describing the methodology and the results of the study. As I reported in March, March 14, 2011, the documentation manual does not contain an analysis comparing the district’s compensation to the compensation of surrounding districts. And as far as we can determine, no such analysis was ever completed. We infer, that the reduced scope of work eliminated this phase of the study from E&Y’s project requirements. Therefore it appears that E&Y never created a final version of the preliminary estimate that has been the focus of the media’s investigation.

2 Cere"I hate to say this, but I don't think there is a 'report' per se."

But according to the newspaper there was a concise Summary given to the BOE that detailed the amount of money to be saved. There had to be data entered into a spreadsheet to calculate all of those thousands of positions (2,500 overpaid and 300 underpaid).

" Therefore it appears that E&Y never created a final version of the preliminary estimate that has been the focus of the media’s investigation."

This should have said:" Therefore it appears that E&Y never created a final version of the preliminary estimate that WAS CONTRACTED for by the DEKALB BOARD OF EDUCATION and PAID for by DEKALB TAXPAYERS."

Yes, there is another Calloway at Idlewood. What a joke! He does not teach and the three so-called administrators at Idlewood will not touch him because of, “friends and family.” Oh, and by the way one of the Aps is an AKA. They allow young Calloway to sit no teaching, play on the computer, come to work when he feels like it and leave early every day. He does not attend faculty or staff meetings. Parents have complained how much they are unhappy about him not teaching. Yes, the principal is aware of the numerous complaints. She needs to go!!! Dr. A and the BOE need to force her early retirement (NOW)! Let’s see if that school makes AYP this school year. They have not made AYP since this principal has smiled her way into this position.

The majority of the people listed on the E&Y list have retired. Granted some have returned and are working for the system. That report is almost 10 years old. Hopefully the current study will be accurate. If there are cuts in staff, I hope that they will be done fairly.

"What about all the administrators who have been "moved" to other departments over the years for a variety of reasons? Did their salaries decrease?'

Well, there is one we know did not see a decrease:Please see what Ms. Tyson promised the taxpayers regarding Ralph Simpson and Selina Thedford for their participation in the unethical book sales scandal:

AJC article 12:40 p.m. Sunday, August 15, 2010:"DeKalb County’s top school official is firing two principals and demoting two other officials after an internal investigation found school funds were used to purchase thousands of dollars worth of books that school administrators had written. ....

Interim Superintendent Ramona Tyson said the investigation uncovered a misuse of school funds that was “alarming,” “disturbing” and “unethical.”.....

The district cut Simpson’s salary from $115,405 to $89,599, and Thedford’s from $105,615 to $93,168, district Chief of Staff Alice Thompson said."

http://www.ajc.com/news/dekalb/dekalb-fires-2-demotes-592425.html

Taxpayers need to go to the 2011 state salary and travel audit that lists the 2010 - 2011 salaries for these employees:

Selina Thedford:School year 2010- 2011 - $107,153(versus the $93,168 quoted to the AJC)

So Ms. Tyson did not appreciably reduce their salaries. They functioned as Assistant Principals for the entire year at almost the same salaries with generous travel benefits as well.

The average salary for an Assistant Principals in DeKalb is $77,000 a year so they are not in line with the pay for Assistant Principals either. In addition, Mr. Simpson has $945 listed as his travel expense, and Ms. Thedford has $2,499 listed as her travel expense. The average travel expense for DeKalb Assistant Principals in the 2010-2011 school year was $390.

Out of 276 Assistant Principals in DeKalb Schools, Mr. Simpson is the highest paid Assistant Principal and Ms. Thedford is the 4th highest paid Assistant Principal.

Shame on the administrators at Idlewood if they allow Calloway's son to take away from children who want to learn. The same punishment should apply to Baby Calloway at Idlewood that mama calloway inflicted on others when she was in the county office. (out the door)Hopefully, his dad, mother,or brother will hire him at their administrative locations. The administrators that fail to protect our children from teachers like calloway should be first on the line to be moved.This kind of leadership at Idlewood shows how teachers resent being under these kind of incompetent female leaders who are part of the AKA plan and Family and Friends connections.To the adult calloways, please allow your son to transfer to your schools under your leadership in order to stop playing as though he is a teachers. Give it up, Mr. Calloway at Idlewood.

I hope that all of the miscreants named in the phantom 2004 E & Y report who have retired are living the good life on the local tax money that I already have paid into the DCSS for their pension and in the future by my part of my State income tax that goes to support the TRS. The same holds for any who may become retired as a result of the new report

Questions:

Is Clew getting his pension?Any news on the grand jury requested to investigate the DCSS BOE? If a grand jury has subpoena power it probably could get whatever E & Y has.

Yes this is a shame for those administrators at Idlewood. Baby Calloway has only a teaching degree so he is not certified to be an administrator. Let’s see if they move those administrators at Idlewood! They are just collecting money from taxpayers. This is the Big Secret, and it goes on at many schools in DCSS from what I am told. Dr. A get rid of administrators who do not want to help our children. This is another situation where there are friends and family benefits for some and Not All.

The Idlewood Callaway teacher was on a non-renewable certificate that began 4-11-2010 (usually this means someone comes in on the Teacher Alternative Preparation Program and they must complete the program to be certified). He has a current certification of Early Childhood - 2011 - 2015.

The Assistant Principal Callaway is certified in Leadership.

I don't know how they got their jobs or what kind of jobs they do, but they are certified in their areas.

I wonder if mama callaway had something to do with him being certified. So baby callaway at Idlewood, is able to ride on his mom and dad’s coat-tail? So they allow him to hold the title of teacher. However, he does not teach our children. Dr. A and BOE members (0% tolerance of this behavior from a member of this Callaway family) tell me why he is getting get away with this mess!!! From what I understand this is his second school in DCSS.

For Heavens Sake! There are over 50 comments about an ancient report. Why is there not a single person asking why the taxpayers do not have the 2012 report that was just issued! I just looked on the DCSS website and could not find it. How can we get a copy of it now?

Have you contacted your BOE members (local and at large) to request a copy of the report? That would be the first step. That goes for any and every reader or commenter on this blog that is interested in the report. As a taxpayer, you paid for this report. And the Georgia Open Records Act says you must be given access to the report.

2012 report??? When we see some of those Area Supers and Asst Supers, administrators (Principals and Assistant Principals), coaches, secretaries, and those redundant county support workers we see some changes taken place. They need to support those who are in the trenches working with our children. When we start trying this method we’ll student achievement! Get those people who are not working and only collecting a pay check out of the DCSS. Enough of the old regimes of Clews and his crew!

This is utterly amazing! No job descriptions so no one knows what his/her responsibilities are. With no job descriptions, how can anyone have any objectives for the year and, accordingly, how can anybody receive a fair appraisal, receive fair and just compensation, or be rewarded to receive training and development to become better?

I cannot believe or accept that this situation has been permitted or tolerated by the School Board, by the interim Superintendent, and by responsible officials of the Dekalb County School Administration.

I have never, ever seen such a blatant case for discipline and punishment. It is up to the School Board to right this ship. Right now, the Dekalb County School ship looks a lot like the disaster just off the coast of Italy.

Cere, your post from last night at 7:32 is exactly why I am so angry about that missing report. My wife and the group she was a part of searched through boxes, at DCSS in 2006. They kept asking for minutes of meetings which never materialized. Many of their questions and concerns were never answered. Back then stakeholders wanted to know more about the Sembler deal, which thankfully the economy killed. You had a fraudulent demographers report, which was just a cut and paste from a Virginia school system, that parents were concerned about and Clew was basing his first redistricting decisions on. Let's not forget DCSS leaders never spoke with DeKalb County planning regarding Vernon Jones re-zoning plan, which would effect communities county-wide. Then DCSS owned GIS demographers software for three years and during the 1st round of closings, before someone was hired who knew how to operate it, Dan Drake. The BOE approves Jamal Edwards promotion and $15k raise, AFTER IT HAD ALREADY HAPPENED and parents at a school discovered he had been hiding out there and had not reported to his new job FOR 6 MONTHS! Many parents were accused of being "vociferous" and loud conspiracy theorists by AJC beat writers and others in local media. WHY!?

My wife's group worked hard communicating with a former Asst. Super under Clew, right in the middle of a Semester she retires quickly. My wife could not believe she left so fast, why did she head out so quickly? She headed for the mountains and hasn't been heard from since.

I think there are two groups inside DCSS that continue to protect each other. Each group has sub-groups. There is a group of long timers, the Halford/Cherry/Freeman Few, who are still on the payroll. Then you have Clew's Crew of family dynasties of Edwards/Guilroy, Callaway, Walker, Sororities/Frats and church members.

Dr. Atkinson has a tough job breaking those two groups up, especially with the majority of the BOE complicit with it's continuation, but I think it's the only way out of this mess. Like a previous poster said, the ship hasn't sunk YET, but it's listing badly and DeKalb's students are still getting hurt and/or drowning in a system NOT set up for success. Too much crap has gone on over the past 8 years to just say oh well, let's move on. Now is the time to make sure everyone involved THEN is not around as DCSS tries to right itself and move full steam ahead on a course for success.

The more that comes about the school system, the more, I want to know why accreditation has not been taken away. If we lose our accreditation, than we have a chance to start all over. I am not sure that the ship can be righted unless we start from scratch. Those in the groups Atlanta Media Guy mentioned aren't going to give up their power and large salaries without a fight and the new board president will help to protect them. What will happen is Atkinson will be made to look like the problem when this may/may not be the issue, as we'll never know the truth with the current employees and many current board members.

Why are personnel from the Palace who are in the direct line of fire for termination have suddenly fallen ill.

Seriously, there are several Palace workers who have all caught a case of "I can't be fired if I'm out sick or on FMLA!"

These personnel have been discovered as frauds. They are paid over $60,000+ a year of Your Tax Dollars to perform $32,000 a year in duties and responsibilities.

These underachievers in duty and over achievers in pay are the backbone and the boiling point of so much contention within this "sinking ship."

For years they have served under multiple administrations (Freeman, Brown, Lewis) and continued to perform the same task; sleeping on the job, having inappropriate relations, playing solitaire on DCSS computers, taking 2 hour lunches all during business hours.

Dr. A. Must not allow the taxpayers to continue to pay for sloppiness and lazy leaders who only care about the lining of their pockets while they forget the focus of DCSS.

The children deserve better, Title 1 should have been overhauled because they have been underperforming for years. The leadership or lack thereof in DCSS has been a laughing stock of Georgia and This Must Stop!

I challenge each of you who have friends and or family that live/work in DCSS to post the bloat....do not identify the individuals by name but the job descriptions. See if the job measures to the pay they are receiving.

Teachers and Students should matter and come First but something/someone is missing in DCSS. A leader amongst men/women/children who can appeal to the masses and call to action a positive change for DCSS.

These changes can only begin when the Heery Mitchell debacle is resolved immediately. The former Superintendent and COO case finally goes to trial and all parties including past and present BOE members are held accountable for their part in the destruction of DCSS.

Sorry Cere I got a little long winded but I have witnessed too much within the decayed walls of DCSS and can't remain silent any longer.

The way I read her comments is that she will reassess, reassign and recreate the wheel. My prediction, there will be 50 or so folks let go, they will make a big deal of it. One will be high profile or the family member of Walker,whomever else has a notable parent. That will be it. They will stand there proclaiming a cleaned house, now let's educate the children.

I have lost track, can anyone tell me who Atkinson has terminated? Not just reassigned. There are 5 new people, I think, in jobs previously occupied by a high paid butt. Now there is an even higher paid butt occupying that job? Did the aforementioned lower paid butt get kicked out the door? Or are they now doing some other "created" position?

Well we know that Turk is at the service center and Uladia Taylor is a secretary at Dunair ES, Bob Mosley, Tim Freeman are at one of the centers (Bryant, Jim Cherry or Sam Moss) where they will either retire June 30 or be released.

So let's see DCSS is still on the hook payin the bloated salaries for all of those removed leaders.

I would love to hear from the Idlewood parents also about junior Callaway. Of course you know how that is those parents at Idlewood will complain at the school and believe what the 3 so called administrators tell them. Parents have complained to me about this situation and when I tell them they need to take it further they're afriad. Remember most parents at that school do not want reprecussion to happen to their kids. It is pitful listening to their concerns. When will they take action and help the parents who are suffering and want help but afraid.

Dr. A. Must not allow the taxpayers to continue to pay for sloppiness and lazy leaders who only care about the lining of their pockets while they forget the focus of DCSS.

The children deserve better, Title 1 should have been overhauled because they have been underperforming for years. The leadership or lack thereof in DCSS has been a laughing stock of Georgia and This Must Stop

This is so true DCSS is the laughing stock because of the so called leaders are concerned about themselves and their family and friends. I have had enough of the blowing of air their these leaders express to the media and taxpayers. These administrators in the schools are by far the worst of the bunch. They treat employees like crap if you do not agree with their game plan. So when will the children be placed at the top of the list? Also when will the Title 1 funding be used for our children, and when will unnecessary spending be stopped? Will the Federal Government do better than the state of Georgia? Enough is enough with this mess our children are worth more than this.

Now I hope everyone understands why there was and is a small but vocal group in STRONG opposition to SPLOST and, to a lesser degree, the cell towers. Millions of dollars are obviously being mismanaged, and we have now given the same group hundreds more millions of SPLOST to mismanage. In addition, the amount of money being generated by the cell towers is in NO WAY worth the stress and angst it is causing - it is pennies compared to what we waste every single year on a bloated central office.

This BOE and the central office have been lying for years about being strapped for cash. We have PLENTY of money being managed very badly.

This site is full of hatred and gossip. It's Disgusting to see how much people have to say about others, when they have never done the job or walked in a person's shoes. They don't know what the job entails, they don't know the detials about the spending of a department's budget, but have plenty to say. You should never wish bad on others, because as the saying goes, what goes around will come back around...Watch the seeds you plant....God speed

AnonymousJanuary 20, 2012 6:10 PMwhen they have never done the job or walked in a person's shoes. They don't know what the job entails, they don't know the detials about the spending of a department's budget, but have plenty to say. You should never wish bad on others, because as the saying goes, what goes around will come back around...Watch the seeds you plant....God speed

I don't think people are wishing bad for another person. I really think they are just tire of the Family and Friends plan that has caused students to continue to not be first on the agenda of these so- call educators. I also wonder did you or do you see the plants that you have planted that has not bloomed to their fullest potential because of the laziness by so many of you that are in these positions. This county has not been fair to applicants that applies for positions and are qualified to do what you all are paid to do but are not doing it. (See AYP)What is coming out is the dirt from under the rug that lies in the front of your and other hearts for placing only people in positions for sorority, friends and family reasons and TOTALLY NOT FOR CHILDREN. So yes!!!!! God Speed is right on time.

@3:10yes I certainly do have hatred...hatred for mismanagement of public funds...hatred for abuse of power...you must be one of the palace employees....gossip...this site has is very reputable and does not encourage gossip type comments...I have learned so much from this blog.

Oh Yes, this is the best site that will keep you informed about the corruption of this county education system. If you are doing your job this site is not talking about you. Oh,,, You are one of the 300 that are not qualified or certified to do your job. Time is over!!!!!! Don't hate and choose not to partcipate.

I think if anyone else were to sit in a classroom and model Baby Calloway then administrators all over the county would be talking about this. None of the calloway children actually work.Baby Calloway teaches 5th grade which is a critical grade. Be the first to view his CRCT scores and then move the administrators who refuses to correct his behavior. Last, move Baby Calloway to his mom and dad's school or better yet to the school where his big brother is assistant principal. The administrators at Idlewood are friends with the calloways and one is a AKA member in the same sorority chapter as Baby Calloway's mother, Frankie.If this isn't a good example of Friends and Family abuse, please tell the teachers at Idlewood what is.I bet in another year, Baby Calloway will be an administrator in DCSS just like his dad, mother, and big brother, stay tuned and you will see. Did Baby Calloway come to work this week? He usually masses three day of being absent per week.

First of all, the seeds that I have planted have bloomed. Secondly, you don't know what position I hold. Third, the Superintendent needs to review the data of the teachers who's students are not performing. Let's not forget there are MANY under performing teachers in the classroom, those who only come to work for a pay check or either they don't come to work at all nor do they call for a substitute. There's much talk about centeral office, but let's not forget about the school house. There are still MANY teachers that only give out dittos and who NEVER use differentiated instruction, let alone know what it means...So yes, God Speed

The school house is full of female administrators who have not one clue about their schools. So, when their teachers see this type of behavior, you get poor teachers following their leaders especially on the south end of the county. Look at Baby Calloway's behavior at Idlewood.AKA Sorors helping sorors by shielding Baby Calloway. Wow! The AKA soror connection is so TRUE on the south end of the county.

Good test scores does not equal a good teacher. When I taught in DCSS, the worst teacher at our school (no discipline, control over the class, etc.) had the best test scores. I am not sure how this happened (cough, cough), but there is no way I'd put a pet rock in that classroom, let alone my child. Test scores mean very little to me. Teachers being judged by test scores without a quality observation, means little as well. The five to ten minute observations that I received in DCSS were appalling and pathetic. Not sure how to change public education, but huge changes need to take place if our children are ever going to know how to think, read well, think mathematically, and problem solve.

Hey Anon 6:10! The new audit says the very employees don't even know what their job entails, so don't give me the, we don't know what it's like BS. Too much money is being wasted on salaries for people that have no effect on the students at all. Period!

We need a Palace cleaning, especially since Friday Media dump brings news that DCSS almost botched receiving RTTT funds for missing an August deadline. Didn't Fran Millar save DCSS last year when employees missed a deadline for state funding? Tyson has messed up big time and I hope the BOE holds her accountable. Once again, Dr. Atkinson has to clean up another mess by a Clew crew member. Ugh!

Having control over a classroom does not mean they are good teachers either!!! I have observed several classrooms where the teacher demonstrates excellent control over the students. I am so happy, I am not a student in those classes!!! I would die from begin board out of my mind!!!! The children seem as if they are working...but they are faking so they can get the reward for being the quiet and copying the most information out of a book in 50 mins!!! Oh yeah, whoever finish copying everything by the time the bells rings, get a homework pass!!!! A true classroom where learning is going on should be obvious by the children's participation, their interaction with the teacher, and they ability to perform!!! Not just on a standardize test!!!! Anybody can control a classroom by placing objects as incentives or threats!!! Please know control do not indicate that a classroom teacher is being productive.

Are you serious? Have you actually taught students? I don't know one teacher worth his or her pay that uses the phrase "differentiated instruction." On the other hand, I've come across heaps of administrators, coaches, and edutainers that do.

For the record, differentiated instruction was something intended to be used with gifted students-not the general population (which in the case of DCSS means many students performing below level because DCSS devotes too many resources to out-of-school "educators" who have no interest in working with students).

@ 9:24 When I was in grad school for teaching in the mid-90's, I was taught that a good teacher differentiates instruction for all of her students and teaches them where they are and brings them up. I was able to do that when teaching in other districts across the country, because there was discipline in the school (even when I had 35 plus kids). It's a great deal of work and consumed much of my time after school, but the outcome for the children was amazing. What I was able to do with all of my kids really made me proud to be a teacher.

@ 9:01 I agree with you, but the teacher that I had in mind, actually had children running around her classroom and out of control. Not to speak of the kids that would throw rocks at the school's windows on the way to and from going outside. Not to mention the destruction they did to the bathrooms. This class was totally out of control and the teacher never tried to stop any of it and was oblivious to most of it.

Regarding the situation at Idlewood and the AKA administrator she is very aware of Baby Callaway's non-teaching style. He is playing on the computer while the students are doing "book work." He walks around eating in the hallways. It is unfortunate that Baby Calloway can and does get away with things at that school. The teachers dare not say anything because they're afraid of mama Callaway! LEt some of those administrators (Horace Dunson) from the county office come and see comedy show! He is late for work when he decides to come to work!! The students are left alone in the classroom due to him chatting with other teachers. So how is learning taking place at that school?

I fear that Gene Walker is chair of the BOE solely to protect the friends and family plan and that he is the one (or one of the ones) who leaked the Dr. Cox info to the press... I hope that his "true colors" will ultimately come through and Dr. A. will have a harassment suit of some sort to be able to file against him and that will bring it all crashing down. We have Terry Morris to thank for his presence on the BOE ... he's only there because Paul Womack is there and Paul Womack is there because Terry Morris wanted him there. Anyone who wants accreditation lost or who at least understands that Dr. A needs the pressure of SACS hanging over DCSS, needs to continue to stay in contact with SACS and file complaints with SACS about things that have gone "awry" in DeKalb. I do not believe that E&Y completed the 2004 audit because CLew told them not to complete it because he wasn't going to like what it was going to say... Ms.Tyson wasn't being told the entire story when she went looking for the audit when Sandy Spruill and company went looking for the audit. It's incomprehensible that E&Y wouldn't have a copy in their files (electronically stored) somewhere. There are people who don't want it to be found. Too many people could give a flying hoot about the well being and future of the children, and, unfortunately, they seem to be the ones with much of the power.

E&Y has the audit, but they cannot release it without the permission of the entity they contracted with, DCSS. If the BOE never requests a copy, then they won't have a copy in-hand to be subjected to the Freedom of Information requests.

If you travel throughout the south district, you will see many Baby Calloways. During Mama Calloway's rein, and many other sorors (AKA's) in the palace were PLACED over positions because of Mama Calloway and Fannie Tartt just to name a few.Then it spiraled down to the female AKA sorors into the leadership roles of administrators. 80% of the highest paid positions in the DCSS are members of this sorority.(AKA)Bullentin boards, memos, you name it are highlighted in pink and green. Frogs adorned most of their offices and just like the administrator (AKA) at Idlewood, the quality of leadership is through favortism of other sorors in their buildings; which leads to and BREEDS poor female leaders of this clique. They protect each other children such as Baby Calloway and others. Why would a principal mention over the intercom that today is; AKA Founder's Day? Is that a standard to teach for the day? Is it going to improve the AMO at your school? Just curious!Please donot leave out CLEW for helping to make this sorority clique (AKA) grow even more. A lot of females from this particular sorority were special friends of CLEW and this is how they became principals and administrators. (sorry but true) This is why test scores on the south end of the county are not worth viewing. These ladies have not a clue as to manage their schools. Oh, wait until February when they allow staff to dress in sorority colors to honor Black History and donot forget the step shows where staff some principals and administrators step on stage. OMG, being from another state, I couldnot believe how administrators allowed their sororities to over shadow students learning. Parents, please start visiting these schools on the south end of the county and stay all day. Start patrolling schools on the south end of the county from 8:00 until dismissal Monday-Friday. This is the only way to change this college / sorority/ fraternity/ Family and Friends connections on the south end.

So, this is why, most of the administrators during their Fireside Chat kept saying that they wanted more autonomy in their buildings. Female administrators actually means more power to hire more of their sorority sister,church members, special friends after work, and etc. These administrators are not looking to help these children; their main objective is to induce their power over other females in their buildings that they cannot control.Dr. Adkinson, until these schools on the south end can produce some CRCT results, their power would be to take leadership courses, learn to manage their schools and support teachers in their buildings instead of talking about their staff to other administrators during their county meeting.Since most of them are mentioning that the Transfer Papers are in, extend the courtesy and let them fill out one first. Clew and the leaders of the sorority/frat/ family and Friends, you guys have created a mess on the south end of the district.

I,too, "learned" about differentiated instruction, and I agree that students benefit from a teacher who can explain concepts and ideas in various ways and encourage students to apply these in different ways. However, my experience teaching in DCSS is that DCSS has adulterated the concept of differentiated instruction to mean that-at least at the high school level-you can pretend that students who lack the reading and critical thinking skills necessary to read independently and understand a story, novel, essay, or excerpt (sometimes written at the student's grade level or even below)will still benefit from illustrating it or singing abou it.

And I still maintain that differentiated instruction (see the literature as well as recent NYT stories) was and is only meaningfully applied in a gifted class and that most teachers interested in teaching-not filling out lesson plans-don't even use the phrase

"E&Y has the audit, but they cannot release it without the permission of the entity they contracted with, DCSS. If the BOE never requests a copy, then they won't have a copy in-hand to be subjected to the Freedom of Information requests."

Well, they had to have had a copy of the summary and accompanying details at some point in time. Was it destroyed? Can you destroy information like that paid for by taxpayer money and subject to the Freedom if Information Act?

Will the release the summary and all information for this audit or will it be hidden from the pubic as well?

When will titles and salaries be published on the DCSS websites? DeKalb should be publishing EVERY title and Salary Schedule on the DCSS website.

This is not only in the South end schools but it occurs at some North end as well that is if Idlewood is considered North end school. The AKA AP at Idlewood has frogs, pink and green all over in her office. So how is that conducive for learning. The children are not high school students about enter their first year in college. They have alot of time to decide if and when they will join a sorority. She does have a concern for the children at this school. It is so amazing how they have allowed her to get away with this mess! The principal at Idlewood school is not a member of a sorority. However, she is very limited in her leadership abilities. So she allows things to happen because of a lack of leadership abilities. As a matter of fact the two AP's and principal should be on a Leadership Develop Plan for leadership improvement. They desparately need some mentoring and I think this is the reason this school has not made AYP. When you walk on this campus and if you're familiar with quality education you will know that they're being FAKE and Putting On A Dog And Pony Show! Parents and stakeholders should start visiting this school on a regular basis. You will see why they have not made AYP.

Teachers, I am back and as I requested before leaving that you archive your 1st semester gradebooks and then report to Ms. Frith to sign off, it did not occurred for many of you. Let me reiterate my instructions again, I need for everyone to archive their 1st semester gradebooks and report TODAY to see Ms. Frith during your planning period or right afterschool. Please do not try and leave this campus without taking care of your business. i appreciate your immediate attention to this matter.

Teachers, on yesterday I sent out an email reminding everyone that 1st semester gradebooks must be archived and you must go see Ms. Frith to sign off. I have a large number of teachers who did not follow through on the request. Ms. Frith will be here until 3:00p.m. today and I suggest this matter is taken care of today. this will be my final email regarding this matter, so make sure you follow through. Thank you for your immediate attention to the matter.

I bet the principal at Druid Hill is a member of Ms. Calloway's organization. The incompetent AP (AKA) at Idlewood has a job that a person who was truly looked over for got through HR and this AP's sorority connections. There are many like the principal at Druid Hills. The principal at Avondale Elementary is a bully and has a very very special relationship like Bahama Berry with CLEW. The principal at Browns Mill reminds me of the principal at Idlewood. Her assistant has made the school unbearable. Teachers laugh at how she use to disrespect authority as a teacher when she was at the same school.Teachers just think if Dr. Atkinson gives principals like these mentioned more power in their schools. Instead of HR sending Transfer Papers to teachers they should be sending these same Transfer Papers to a lot of administrators in the DCSS. Taxpayers, if you have kids in these schools, please visit unannounced and stay all day and you will be surprised. Please donot go on a Friday, you might think that you are in a college Greek show by the attire these administrators wear and allow their staff to walk around and model for sororities and fraternities. Still their schools cannot make AYP. It is sad when educators place sororities and frats in such regards over educating children in our schools.Is it a sense of just needing to belong to something or just needing to feel that being and wearing certain colors make you as as a person. If you need to belong or be recognized,there are organizations such as Hosea Feed the Children and etc that would benefit from that lonely feeling of needing to be recognized because you pledged. So , Sad, but so TRUE.Administrators didnot advertise their sororities and fraternities in DCSS at one time. All of this foolishness started with CLEW and now it is out of control.

Someone please tell me as a taxpayer what is a preventive specialist and what function does this position serve in the schools?I think Mama Calloway's daughter must be the higest paid preventive specialist who went from a para to this position. Hopefully this was in the audit.

Trust me, Baby Calloway would not be up on the north end of Dekalb not teaching kids. First, the parents would have oust the incompetent principal and AKA AP out of their district.Donot look for any support from Horace Dunson. Teachers at schools on the south end, Browns Mill and others complained to him about their poor quality of leadership, and got no where. These leaders are still in office and make teachers lives miserable everyday.So, PLS, donot look for any resolutions from the area director, Dunson.

Taxpayers need to contact their Board of Education members and Dr. Atkinson to ask for deep cuts in the admin and support side and redirection of funds back into the classrooms.

Look at a response to a comment on Get Schooled from Maureen Downey. Maureen has sat through many BOE meetings and interviewed many DCSS BOE and Upper Management.

Quote from Maureen Downey on her Get Schooled blog:" I have to agree that if cuts are ever to be made, there is no better time than now when state funding is dwindling, property taxes are down and the county is facing massive foreclosure rates. Dr. Atkinson will never have better cover for making the hard decisions than today’s grim economic climate. If she cannot do it now, it will never, ever happen in DeKalb. She has the audit in hand and the poor economy at her heels. I think she is good to go."

The push needs to come now. How much higher can property taxes go and how much lower can student go?

All of this talk about "Baby Calloway." Well I see that the behavior has not changed since he was rushed away from Rainbow in order to cover up an incident that occurred with a student. The principal of Rainbow did all she could to hid the incident, but when the student's mother got the DeKalb County Police involved, they could no longer hid the issue at hand.

Baby Calloway was put in time out at the Region II Area Superintendent's Office (the chip lady) and all else was swept under the rug. No doubt mommy and daddy Calloway had a hand in all of this.

While at Rainbow, all of the same issues that you have stated held true their and he was in an AYP grade as well. Constantly late, missing work, roaming the hallways, spending time with his girlfriend when he should have been in his classroom with his students, always back and forth to his truck for some apparent reason. The children were out of control and definitely there was no learning going on. This was brought to the attention of the "Principal". but she did nothing to remedy the situation. She would always try to push the responsibility off on someone else as if she was afraid of him. But trust me; she would ram the next person that would do any of the things that he did.

Once out to lunch one day after the incident with the student and Baby Calloway, she (Rainbow principal) was not able to eat her meal for fidgeting and sliding down in her seat when she saw Mama Calloway in the same restaurant. What a pity. All of the school's she's been at in DeKalb and other issues while serving in those schools; I don't even understand how and why she is still in an administrative role. Yes, I am talking about the present principal at Rainbow. So she helped to create the "Baby Calloway" situation. Please check his teacher evaluations and let us know what they say... Will be waiting.

I am not sticking up for the Rainbow Principal, I don't know her, but if she put her foot down, she would have been fired and blamed. She was in a no win situation.

It will not be until the administration in charge of the district puts educating children first,and not creating jobs, that this mentality will change. There are too many who have jobs that they are not qualified for or simply do not deserve. Until many are fired this will continue and Atkinson will be to blame.

The blame Atkinson will get will be not putting money aside for the teachers retirement that the district is being sued for. That settlement if against DCSS will be an earthquake to the system.

Please refrain from using condescending nicknames. It dilutes your point. Please just state the facts as you see them. So, you can say that a former high-ranking DCSS official's son seems to have had an easy time acquiring jobs and promotions... etc. thanks.

Thanks Celebration because that "baby calloway was getting old. New topic pleaseIf all the content from this blog and interviews from employees was compiled it would be a best seller or a well viewed lifetfime movies....sad but true...

Say in ain't so, Dr. Chana makes what? The memo validates why Dr. Atkinson should not give principals or assistant principals or administrative staff persons; Area Directors and etc,,,, NO MORE AUTONOMY to cause CHAOS.Also; the incident involving Calloway's son is another reason why favortisim is running rampant in DCSS. I bet if you check his file, there is not one letter of direction or anything. Why wasn't Ramsey called? The principal at Rainbow must be a member of Calloway's organization; AKA the reason why he was protected.

Please STOP with the AKA sorority, fraternity nonsense already! Although it all may be true, you are running it into the ground. Did some of you who keep bringing up the AKA issue try and pledge, but wasn't accepted??? Sounds like a lot of hating going on. Enough, is enough!!!

I agree a lot is coming to light. Pay the money and anyone can become a Greek now. (Ask, Dr. Berry and about 300 more that have joined)

Just exposing the AKA Dynasty for taxpayers to see how Calloway, D.White, Berry and others used the Greek connections to PLACE their sorors as principals, AP's and other positions within the county. Most taxpayers didnot know this, the truth sometimes will hurt.

No I'm not an AKA, but I do know when something has been run into the ground. Sounds like you and the other AKA bashers wish they were. DCSS may be run by many of them but right now it is what it is, so get over it and come up with something more interesting to blog about. Good grief!

This administrator is a member of Calloway's organization. Need we say more about how she was hired. To anyone desiring to join AKA sorority, the fee is about $2,000 or more depending which chapter you join. Most Greek organizations are easy to get into now because they need the money.However, most people now, can see that sororities and frats are cliques and simply that.On the BLOG, we are exposing unfair practices of this sorority by former and current members... we make no apologies.

I see now you lie and make things up. I say that because I happen to know that Chana Jackson is not a member of AKA or any sorority for that matter. Where do you people come from? Please stay off of the blogs with your lies and gossip that isn't true. By the way, if it's $2,000 to become an AKA, pay it already and STOP hating! That's all it really is. I know the TRUTH hurts.

DCSS may be run by many of them (aka) but right now it is what it is, so get over it and come up with something more interesting to blog about.

Why should it continue to be “it is what it is?” DCSS has so much corrupt going on and they have forgotten the main purpose which is educating our children. We have people who are being treated unfair and looked over for jobs because of a particular group that you’re in? Also, because you are not agreeing with a particular leader and because you are not in my organization occurs! No we should not have to get over but “TELL THE TRUTH!” Let me put it this way, “I Know Who I AM and do not need to belong to an organization!” No, I do not want to join an organization because its cliques within the organization so do it for what? Show someone letters? Dishonesty begins with you! Figure this one out!!!!

I totally agree with you, but until Dr. A decides to get rid of the gang of AKAs, it is what it is for now. Maybe the feeling is if you talk about them enough, she will fire them all ( I doubt that seriously), but God does work in mysterious ways.

@ 9:32 I don't know if the person is an AKA or not, but from those emails, she does not have a good sense of the English Language, is a bully, and went to a poor school to get a PhD, if one that can write like that can earn a PhD from it. For these reasons, anything other than a first year teacher salary is too much for a tax payer to be paying for such an employee and this example is only one that we know about. There are many others like this in the same and even higher positions, and this is why are kids aren't being educated. Those in charge wouldn't know an education if it slapped them in their face!!!

Objective for the day: The BOE and Superintendent Dr. A. will exhibit appropriate ways of spending, select a candidate based of proven skills, return funding that is due to employees especially teachers, and refrain from bickering among themselves.

She is also listed on the Teacher Transformation (consultants and keynote speakers) website as the Principal of Druid Hills.

"“Chike Akua's ‘Parent Power’ workshop was awesome! He presented in such a creative manner that the participants were engaged throughout. All participants praised the workshop stating that the information was great and that they acquired many practical strategies which they could implement immediately with their child.”

Also look at this page on Mr. Akua's website:""A Treasure Within is a remarkable collection of stories with a broad appeal to all youth. The stories instruct, develop moral character, adn entertain at the same time. The accompanying Parent/Teacher Resource Guide is a great and useful addition to this wonderful collection."Dr. William Hammond, Reading Instructional CorrdinatorDekalb County Schools, Atlanta, Georgia"

@5:27 Listen there is a time and place to show your greek pride...I am sure there are clubs and other social places that have greek night for you all to be in pink and green and red and cream heaven....education is not the place for it. Don't encourage my child to learn to step or how to skeewee or how to make a triangle out of her hands. This is almost childish. And I am sorry but its almost an embarassment that you have that much pride in some greek letters. Yes its a fact that probably can be proven some educators chose to pledge after they came to Dekalb meaning they did it whilst completing their masters or these plastic doctorate degrees. So yes Dekalb has assited many greek affiliated ladies and gents obtain jobs and promote to higher paying jobs without any experience or the proper degrees. Its not" hating" to expose abuse. Its time for a change in Dekalb. The hardworking employees with no affiliations deserve better.

At stake is up to $55,000 that the Smoke Rise Elementary Foundation (SREF) has raised specifically for a new playground, including a major donation from a nonprofit that specializes in building them.

But school officials don’t want to use the money for a playground. They say it’s needed for technical and computer labs, among other things. They argue that because Smoke Rise is on a list of schools that will be rebuilt with SPLOST money, a new playground is a waste of money.

Foundation members said school officials demanded they turn over their funds for other uses. School officials deny that.

“We have no authority over the funding that the foundation collects,” DeKalb spokesman Walter Woods said. “But the playground is not a priority.”

SREF President Karen Weitzel, however, said that at a special meeting Monday night, Smoke Rise principal Aaron Moore and Allen Armstrong, the head of the school’s governance council, basically demanded that her group turn over the money.

“They told us it was not our business how they spent the money,” Weitzel said. “We were told that we raise the money, give it to them and not to question it. I was shocked and disagreed. We don’t blindly write checks to the governance council.”

Moore and Armstrong did not return several phone calls this week. But Woods said it would be their decision on whether a playground is installed. Woods said he does not know when that decision will be made.

"For the last three years, SREF has devoted most of its efforts to raising money for a new playground to replace the school’s 1960s-era equipment. School officials recently put yellow caution tape over parts of the structure."

1960's equipment? Thank you Steve Donahue and the rest of the Sam Moss do-nothings!

Stephen Wilkins is a former Army Colonel. Let's hope he brings the discipline and demands it from the employees. From Alexandria and Chicago. As long as he keeps to his budget and weeds out the dead wood I'm all for it!

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More Questions Than Answers - How Did Our Board Not See Anything?

Click to read this very long conversation as we wonder how Lewis and Pope were able to pull the wool over the eyes of our entire board. (A good case for replacing incumbents.)

The latest on the Lewis/Pope Trials

The Civil Case with Heery/Mitchell

Click for background on this complicated civil case on SPLOST construction projects

North vs Central vs South - what's the deal?

Are things really so different in north vs south DeKalb?

DCSS - Could it be as bloated as Mr. Potato Head?

One of our most popular postings - a report on the bloat in spending at the top in DCSS.

Bullying – An Information Clearinghouse

Click the photo for a link to our research on bullying.

Never be afraid to do what's right, especially if the well-being of a person or animal is at stake. Society's punishments are small compared to the wounds we inflict on our soul when we look the other way. -Martin Luther King, Jr.